Whale of a welcome to Spain
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Mon 18 Aug 2014 16:33
007:35.679W
Viveiro, N coast of Spain, Monday 18th August
We arrived at Marina Viveiro today after a successful 2 1/2 day crossing of the Bay of Biscay. We began with a beautiful wind, the final tail end of Hurricane Bertha which sadly fizzled to nothing after about 20hours, so we motored for ages (tedious) until last night a lovely NE wind developed, as forecasted, and we flew towards the N Spanish coast at about 7 knots. Ironically we ended up slowing down this morning to arrive in daylight.
More treats yesterday as we ended up seeing a total of 5 whales which was thrilling for us all. The first two looked as though they were looking at us as they past us by, then two more followed shortly, clearly on a mission north (still needing to be identified). The fifth passed by slowly and effortlessly, reasonably close, blowing on each rise to the surface. As there was no wind we could hear the puffing and see the spray for a long time. It was as big, if not bigger than TC (34ft) so we were pleased there was about 100m between us and him. We think it was a Sperm Whale, so graceful and majestic. Elated by this wonderful experience, we celebrated a non-alcoholic happy hour in the cockpit with a large bowl of popcorn!
We were pleased to be able to use the sat phone finally to obtain a weather forecast, it looks calm until the weekend so we plan to spend a few days here, moving tomorrow to an anchorage nearer the entrance with a sandy beach. Arrival here was very simple, we presume the harbour chap had spotted us on the AIS as he was on the breakwater waving to us, after disappearing on his bike he then appeared on a visitor's pontoon to catch our lines, a very lovely welcome.
With broken Spanish and broken English we muddled through customs and officialdom in a simple and relaxed manner and now plan to go to the supermarket for more fruit and veg to last us until La Coruna.
Adios from a tired but contented crew.
